George  Washington  Flowers 
Memorial  Collection 

DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

ESTABLISHED  BY  THE 
FAMILY  OF 
COLONEL  FLOWERS 


Public  Worship  in  the  Church 


A  CHARGE  TO  THE  CLERGY  OF  THE 
DIOCESE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  CONVOCATIONS 
OF  RALEIGH  AND  CHARLOTTE,  IN  OCTOBER 
NINETEEN  HUNDRED  AND  TWELVE 

ALSO 

A  PASTORAL  LETTER  TO  THE  CLERGY 
AND  LAITY  OF  THE  DIOCESE 


BY  THE 

RT.  REV.  JOS.  BLOUNT  CHESHIRE,  D.D. 
BISHOP  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA 


Pamphlet  Collection 
Duke  Divinity  School 


CHAKGE  TO  THE  CLERGY. 


Brethren  of  the  Clergy: 

The  Canons  of  the  General  Convention  lay  upon  each 
Bishop  the  duty  of  delivering  a  Charge  to  the  Clergy  of  his 
Diocese  at  least  once  in  every  three  years.  They  do  not 
specify  the  form  or  the  subject  of  the  Charge,  but  seem 
simply  to  point  out,  as  part  of  the  duty  of  a  Bishop,  that 
function  of  supervision  and  leadership  which  instructs  in 
the  principles  of  conduct,  and  discerns  and  indicates  the 
special  demands  and  opportunities  of  the  time. 

Though  Episcopal  Charges,  under  that  formal  designation, 
have  been  seldom  heard  among  us,  in  this  Diocese  or  in  oth- 
ers, yet  we  may  fairly  claim  that  the  provisions  of  the  Canons 
have  been  substantially  fulfilled  in  the  Annual  Address  of 
the  Bishop  to  his  Diocesan  Convention.  The  Canons  re- 
quire, as  has  been  said,  a  Charge  to  the  Clergy  of  the  Diocese 
at  least  once  in  three  years,  as  they  also  require  the  Bishop 
to  make  a  visitation  to  each  parish  at  least  once  in  three 
years.  They  further  require  the  Bishop  to  make  to  the  An- 
nual Convention  a  report  of  his  visitations,  confirmations, 
ordinations,  and  other  more  important  official  acts.  As  in 
the  life  of  the  Church  the  visitation  of  the  Bishop  has  come 
to  be,  so  far  as  practicable,  an  annual  event,  and  he  feels  that 
he  can  not,  in  justice  to  his  work,  limit  his  ministrations  to 
the  canonical  minimum,  of  a  visitation  once  in  three  years ; 
so,  in  somewhat  the  same  way,  in  the  matter  of  instruction, 
suggestion,  and  direction  to  the  Clergy  upon  topics  of  gen- 
eral and  special  importance  and  interest,  the  crowding  events 
and  ever-shifting  currents  of  our  modern  life  do  not  allow 
him  to  wait  for  the  recurring  triennium,  that  he  may  deliver 
to  the  Clergy  his  Episcopal  Charge.  The  annual  report  has 
become  the  Annual  Address ;  and  its  enumeration  of  visita- 
tions, confirmations,  ordinations,  and  the  like,  which  is  all 
that  the  Canons  contemplate  or  require,  has  come  to  be  its 
least  interesting  feature,  by  contrast  with  what  is,  in  effect, 
the  annual  charge  of  the  Bishop,  in  which  he  sets  forth  to 
Clergy  and  Laity  those  matters  of  principle  and  of  duty, 
which  he  would  from  year  to  year  specially  press  upon  their 


2 


attention,  as  the  most  important  demands  and  opportunities 
of  the  hour. 

And  yet  this  canonical  provision,  in  regard  to  an  occa- 
sional or  periodical  Charge  to  the  Clergy,  suggests  to  the 
Bishop  a  proper  method  of  addressing  his  brethren  and  fel- 
low laborers,  when  occasion  seems  to  require  a  word  of  in- 
struction, exhortation,  or  warning,  with  reference  to  the 
great  responsibilities  and  opportunities  of  the  work  commit- 
ted to  him  and  to  them ;  and  it  can  not  but  give  additional 
emphasis  and  power  to  his  words,  to  have  them  presented  in 
the  form  of  a  Charge,  authorized,  and  in  a  manner  required, 
by  the  provisions  of  the  Canons  set  forth  by  our  highest 
legislative  authority. 

The  Condition  of  Our  Work. 

When  we  consider  the  work  of  the  Church  in  this  Diocese 
I  think  there  are  many  things  to  make  us  thank  God,  and 
take  courage.  We  are  not  all  that  we  ought  to  be,  and  we  are 
not  doing  all  that  we  ought  to  do.  But  we  have  not  been 
altogether  idle,  and  I  think  that  we  have  some  evidences  of 
the  divine  blessing  upon  our  labors.  So  far  as  I  can  form 
a  judgment  upon  the  subject,  we  have  never  had  a  more  de- 
voted, able,  and  effective  body  of  Clergy  in  the  Diocese  than 
we  have  at  present ;  and  we  have  never  had  so  many  Candi- 
dates for  Holy  Orders,  except  possibly  in  that  heroic  period 
of  want  and  suffering  immediately  following  the  War  be- 
tween the  States ;  when  purified  by  the  fires  of  battle,  and  ex- 
alted by  the  sacrifice  of  their  all,  many  of  the  bravest  young 
Confederate  soldiers  pressed  into  the  ranks  of  the  Christian 
ministry.  To  the  mind  of  a  Bishop  nothing  can  be  more  en- 
couraging and  helpful  than  to  see,  as  we  now  see,  so  many 
young  men  coming  forward  to  seek  the  ministry  as  their  life- 
work. 

Along  with  this  increase  in  the  number  of  our  Postulants 
and  Candidates,  and  closely  connected  with  it,  is  an  increas- 
ing sense  of  responsibility  in  all  our  people,  for  the  work  of 
the  Church,  and  a  more  generous  response  to  our  demands 
upon  them.  It  is,  I  believe,  characteristic  of  our  age,  that 
men  are  coming  to  feel  a  closer  social  bond  between  all,  and 
therefore  a  quickening  sensibility  as  to  our  obligations  to 
and  for  one  another. 

A  manifestation  of  this  is  seen  in  our  increasing  use  of 


» 


3 


laymen  in  Church  work.  Whatever  be  the  superior  func- 
.  tion  of  the  Apostolic  Ministry  in  serving  about  holy  things, 
an  inward  sympathy,  as  well  as  an  outward  necessity,  is 
making  many  laymen  preachers  of  the  Word.  This  is  ob- 
servable in  all  parts  of  the  country  and  among  all  Christian 
people.  And  such  has  always  been  the  case  whenever  the 
Church  has  deeply  felt,  and  earnestly  addressed  itself  to 
fulfil,  the  call  of  the  Master. 

It  is,  as  I  take  it,  a  sign  of  hope  in  our  Diocese,  that  the 
work  which  for  some  years  past  we  have  been  doing,  and 
which  I  trust  to  see  increase  as  the  years  go  on,  could  not 
have  been  done,  and  can  not  be  continued,  except  by  a  large 
use  of  laymen  engaged  in  what  we  used  to  assume  to  be  ex- 
clusively the  function  of  the  ordained  minister. 

And  at  the  root  of  it  all  lies,  as  I  believe,  a  deeper  experi- 
ence of  mutual  love,  and  a  higher  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  human  life  here  and  hereafter.  All  over  our  Diocese  I 
trust  that  our  Clergy  and  our  people  are  moved  by  a  common 
impulse  to  save  for  God's  Church  and  for  God's  world  our- 
selves and  all  others,  and  to  save  ourselves  by  forgetting  our- 
selves in  the  service  of  others.  It  is  this  element  in  our  dio- 
cesan life  which  makes  me  thankful  and  happy  to  meet  our 
Clergy  and  people  in  Convention  and  in  Convocation,  where 
we  can  feel  the  warm  pulse  of  this  common  purpose,  and  the 
resulting  common  confidence  that  God  is  with  us. 

This  is  the  spirit  pervading  the  Church,  and  showing  itself 
more  and  more  plainly  in  the  triennial  meetings  of  our  Gen- 
eral Convention,  and  especially  in  the  joint  sessions  of  its 
two  Houses  acting  as  our  great  National  Missionary  Coun- 
cil. This  spirit  has  already  greatly  affected  our  most  per- 
manent institutions,  our  Constitution  and  our  Prayer  Book. 
The  amendments  to  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  completed 
in  1892,  and  the  alterations  in  our  Constitution  and  Canons 
constantly  going  on,  are  manifestations  of  the  desire  and 
purpose  of  the  Church  to  do  more  effectively  our  work  as 
one  of  the  great  Provinces  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

The  changes,  modifications,  and  additions  in  our  Prayer 
Book  were  intended  to  make  it  a  more  effective  weapon  in 
the  armory  of  the  Church  for  the  purpose  of  the  conquest  of 
the  world.  Our  Clergy  have  not  been  slow  to  divine  this 
purpose,  and  to  use  this  readapted  instrument  in  our  aggres- 
sive work.    And  I  trust  we  shall  continue  to  appreciate  its 


2 


4 


wonderful  effectiveness,  and  to  use  it  with  increasing  skill, 
adapting  it  to  the  necessities  and  opportunities  of  our  mis- 
sionary and  devotional  work,  in  our  new  fields  of  missionary 
endeavor  as  well  as  among  the  ignorant  and  uninstructed  of 
our  oldest  communities.  I  most  heartily  sympathize  with 
the  new  liberty  and  variety  in  the  use  of  our  services  in  the 
aggressive  and  progressive  work  of  the  Church  in  our  new 
fields  and  in  our  old. 

But,  brethren  of  the  Clergy,  there  is  another  aspect  of  our 
services,  and  another  purpose  which  they  serve  in  the  life 
and  work  of  the  Church,  besides  the  missionary  aspect,  and 
the  purpose  towards  those  who  are  ignorant  and  out  of  the 
way.  The  Church  was  established  in  the  world,  and  is  in- 
spired and  sustained  by  our  divine  Master,  for  two  purposes: 
first,  to  be  the  depository  and  source  of  spiritual  Truth  and 
Power ;  and  second,  to  bring  men  into  living  contact  with 
that  spiritual  Truth  and  Power.  Men  must  by  the  Church 
be  made  disciples,  and  being  disciples  they  must  continue  in 
the  things  of  spiritual  life  and  duty  commanded  by  our  Mas- 
ter. The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  is  an  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  the  Church  for  the  propagation  and  extension  of 
the  Truth ;  it  is  also  a  method  of  developing  and  conserving 
power  in  the  Church  by  common  worship.  In  our  eager 
appreciation  of  our  missionary  duty,  and  our  zealous  use  of 
our  services  for  attracting  others  into  the  Church,  we  are,  I 
believe,  in  some  danger  of  failing  to  remember  or  fully  to 
appreciate  that  the  Prayer  Book  is  our  Method  and  Law  of 
Common  Worship.    The  subject  of  this  Charge  is 

Public  Worship  m  the  Church. 

I  fear  that  we  do  not  always  remember  the  fundamental 
character  of  Public  Worship.  In  our  anxiety  to  reach  out 
after  new  material  we  may  overlook  the  necessity  of  develop- 
ing what  we  already  have.  The  idea  of  common  worship 
does  not  pervade  the  mind  of  our  Christian  community.  The 
prevalence  of  extemporaneous  methods  and  customs  of  public 
worship,  among  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Christian  people  of 
our  country,  has  an  unavoidable  tendency  to  throw  the  public 
worship  into  the  hands  of  the  few  more  devout,  or  zealous, 
or,  it  may  be  sometimes,  the  more  self-confident,  members  of 
the  congregation,  and  to  allow  to  the  rest  rather  an  acqui- 
escence, than  any  actual  participation,  in  the  prayers  and 


5 


thanksgivings.  The  development  of  musical  taste  and  skill 
has  also  a  tendency  in  many  cases  to  deprive  the  great  ma- 
jority of  the  people  of  any  part  in  the  voice  of  praise. 

I  mention  this  tendency  of  ex  tempore  methods  of  worship 
to  weaken  and  destroy  the  idea  and  practice  of  common  pub- 
lic worship,  not  that  we  may  in  our  hearts  exalt  ourselves 
above  any  of  our  Christian  brethren.  On  the  contrary  I 
wish  to  say  that  the  excellence  of  our  methods  and  the  beauty 
and  antiquity  of  our  forms  of  service,  have  not  secured  us 
against  the  same  defects,  though  they  perhaps  render  us  less 
sensible  of  them.  We  have  not  escaped  the  general  decay  in 
the  idea  and  practice  of  common  public  worship.  A  very 
large  proportion  of  our  congregations  take  no  more  active 
part  in  public  service  than  do  the  frequenters  of  extempo- 
raneous services.  This  is  a  matter  which,  in  my  judgment, 
demands  the  most  serious  attention  of  our  Clergy  at  this 
time. 

The  Life  of  the  Body. 

Public  Worship  is  the  expression  of  the  life  of  the  Body. 
It  is  also  the  condition  of  that  life,  and  the  chief  means  of 
cultivating  and  developing  the  corporate  life  of  the  Church. 
Christianity  is  not  an  individual  human  life ;  it  is  the  Life 
of  One  divine  Person,  conveyed  to  us  through  His  Body,  the 
Church.  No  man  can  be  a  Christian  by  himself:  "by  one 
Spirit  we  are  all  baptized  into  one  body."  The  very  first 
concern  of  every  Christian  should  therefore  be  the  life  and 
power  of  the  Body.  The  public  worship  of  the  congregation, 
participation  in  its  common  worship,  sacraments,  ministra- 
tions, and  activities  of  every  kind,  is  his  chief  means  of  cul- 
tivating his  oneness  with  the  Body,  and  thereby  entering 
into  and  enjoying  that  great  Catholic  Unity  of  the  Church, 
which  the  unity  of  the  congregation  expresses  and  promotes. 

The  first  and  fundamental  function  of  the  Body,  in  its 
Catholic  character  and  in  its  individual  congregations,  is  to 
represent  the  great  truth  of  the  divine  presence,  power,  and 
redemption  here  on  earth  with  us.  The  first  purpose  of  our 
Public  Worship  is  to  realize  and  to  testify  of  God,  and  of  our 
life  in  Him  in  His  Church.  Before  the  duty,  or  the  power, 
of  preaching  to  the  world,  comes  the  necessity  of  having  and 
feeling  the  Truth  in  ourselves,  the  truth  of  our  life  in  the 
Father,  through  Christ  Jesus  the  Son,  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.    I  charge  you,  brethren  of  the  Clergy,  with  this 


6 

as  the  first  and  fundamental  thing  of  your  ministry.  As  the 
central  principle  of  your  work,  as  the  means  of  developing 
the  life  of  God  in  the  Church,  as  a  source  of  power  by  which 
you  may  in  the  end  reach  out  and  save  others,  you  must  cul- 
tivate and  maintain  in  the  public  worship  of  the  sanctuary 
that  high  ideal  of  reverence  and  holy  fear,  that  solemn  and 
noble  earnestness  in  the  rendering  of  the  sacred  offices,  that 
avoidance  of  all  light  and  unseemly  aids  and  accessories  to 
divine  worship,  by  which  alone  you  can  enjoy  and  perpetuate 
the  treasures  of  faith  and  devotion,  which  have  come 
down  to  us.  There  is  a  time  and  there  is  a  necessity  for 
coming  down  to  the  commonplace  and  the  ordinary ;  there  are 
services  which  you  must  adapt  to  suit  the  ignorant  and  the 
careless ;  there  are  means  which  you  may  properly  employ  to 
attract  the  worldly  and  the  hardened ;  but  not  by  debasing  or 
neglecting  our  great  and  noble  offices  for  cultivating  and  de- 
veloping the  spiritual  life  of  the  devout  and  faithful  Chris- 
tian and  for  helping  those  who  hunger  after  higher  attain- 
ments, and  who  in  their  efforts  need  the  best  that  the  Church 
can  give.  The  strength  of  the  Church  is  in  its  central  body 
of  earnest,  holy,  devout,  consecrated  men  and  women,  in 
whose  mature  characters  the  Spirit  is  having  its  perfect  work, 
bringing  them  into  daily  conformity  with  the  Master ;  and 
the  necessities  of  these  blessed  souls  must  not  be  neglected. 
For  this  central  life  and  power  we  need  our  highest  and  most 
spiritual  worship.  The  Christian  army  may  throw  out  its 
skirmish  lines,  but  it  must  preserve  its.  solid  centre  of  sup- 
port and  succor.  It  is  the  strength  of  the  centre  which  gives 
power  and  efficiency  to  the  advance.  We  may  perhaps  have 
been  over  conservative  in  the  past,  and  guarded  too  jealously 
the  dignity  and  sobriety  of  our  worship,  to  the  lessening  of 
efficiency  in  aggressive  work.  Be  it  so !  We  see  our  error. 
We  are  improving  in  our  missionary  activities.  But  we  may 
not  forget  or  neglect  what  has  given  us  strength  and  influence 
in  the  past.  In  my  judgment  the  Church  should  preserve 
the  highest  possible  standard  of  reverence,  dignity,  and  devo- 
tion in  public  worship,  even  if  it  should  seem  to  be  a  hin- 
drance to  success.  There  is  something  better  than  success. 
But  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  such  a  standard  of 
public  worship  is  without  influence  upon  even  the  men  who 
neglect  it.  It  impresses  them  even  at  a  distance.  They  know 
that  it  is  there.    They  know  what  it  stands  for  and  aspires 


7 


after.  They  may  in  their  busy  hours  and  years  of  selfish 
worldly  occupations  and  ambitions  and  success,  think  that  it 
does  not  appeal  to  them.  But  just  because  it  refuses  to  come 
down  to  their  level,  and  to  court  their  favor,  and  to  cater  to 
their  carnal  and  worldly  minds— because  it  is  above  them 
they  look  up  to  it ;  and  when  the  time  comes  that  they  feel 
the  need  of  a  deliverer,  they  will  lift  up  their  eyes  to  the 
hills,  from  whence  cometh  their  help. 

The  Church  can  never  lose  in  the  end  by  preserving  in 
thought,  and  setting  forth  in  practice,  the  highest  form  of 
solemn,  reverent,  devout  service,  appealing  to  the  deepest 
and  most  spiritual  experiences  and  aspirations  of  the  mature 
Christian,  and  leading  the  less  mature  towards  a  like  holy 
culture.  Therefore,  brethren,  while  we  seek  the  careless  and 
wandering,  and  with  all  diligence  adapt  the  Church  and  its 
ways  to  them,  let  us  also  preserve  in  the  regular  offices  and 
festivals  of  the  Church,  especially  in  all  congregations  of 
settled  and  instructed  Churchmen,  the  very  best  and  most 
solemn  celebration  we  can  maintain  of  the  ancient  liturgy 
and  services  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  that  most  admirable  of 
all  versions,  which  is  ours. 

The  Prayer  Book  the  Law  of  Our  Public  Worship. 

Our  Public  Worship  is  not  left  to  our  whim  or  caprice, 
nor  even  to  our  individual  judgment  or  conscience.  It  is 
prescribed  and  ordered  by  law,  and  that  law  is  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer.  There  are  times  and  places  when  the 
Prayer  Book  can  not  be  used;  as,  for  example,  where  there 
are  no  books,  or  where  the  people  are  ignorant  or  uninstructed 
in  their  use.  There  are  occasions  plainly  not  contemplated 
or  provided  for  by  the  Prayer  Book.  Under  such  circum- 
stances the  clergyman,  by  virtue  of  his  original  divine  com- 
mission, must  minister  to  human  souls,  and  speak  the  word 
given  him  to  speak.  The  Church  and  the  Ministry  antedate 
the  Prayer  Book.  It  remains  true,  nevertheless,  that  the 
Prayer  Book  is  our  Law  of  Public  Worship.  In  the  gener- 
ous liberty  allowed  by  the  Church,  in  the  freedom  of  use  per- 
mitted by  the  rubrics  since  the  revision  of  1892,  some  clergy- 
men seem  to  have  found  a  relaxation  of  law.  I  sometimes 
see  men  act  as  if  they  were  under  no  binding  rule  whatever. 
Suggestions  are  sometimes  made  to  me,  which  imply  such  a 
conception  of  freedom  from  obligation  in  the  matter  of  our 

3 


8 


public  worship.  I  am  happy  in  believing  that  such  is  not 
the  spirit  or  thought  of  the  Clergy  of  this  Diocese.  But  we 
have  not  wholly  escaped.  Let  me  beg  you  never  to  forget 
your  obligations  in  this  matter.  Any  breach  of  law  by  you 
is  a  grievous  injury  to  the  Church,  and  to  your  brethren,  and 
is  an  example  of  disloyalty  and  self-will,  which  will  be  more 
effective  for  ill  than  you  may  be  willing  to  believe. 

First  of  all  then,  brethren,  in  the  Prayer  Book  you  have 
the  appointed  services  of  the  Church,  and  you  are  to  have 
them  as  they  are  there  set  forth.  You  have  no  authority  to 
alter,  abbreviate,  omit,  or  transpose,  otherwise  than  is  therein 
allowed.  In  our  established  parishes  and  congregations, 
upon  the  appointed  festivals,  fasts,  and  other  holy  days  and 
seasons,  the  Prayer  Book  is  your  rule  and  your  only  rule; 
and  it  is  the  law  which  you  have  solemnly  engaged  to  obey. 
You  are  not  to  omit  any  appointed  service,  or  any  part  of  any 
appointed  service,  where  due  performance  is  practicable,  ex- 
cept as  the  same  may  be  contemplated  and  permitted  in  the 
book.  Let  us  all  mark  and  remember  this.  We  deplore,  as 
one  of  the  gravest  evils  of  our  time  and  our  country,  a  disre- 
gard of  law,  when  it  would  limit  or  restrain  individual  in- 
terests, desires,  or  passions.  Let  not  the  Clergy  set  their 
people  an  example  of  lawlessness  in  the  very  acts  of  service 
which  they  offer  to  God ! 

I  shall  not  at  this  time  speak  particularly  of  the  Holy 
Communion.  I  assume  that,  so  far  as  is  practicable,  it  is 
duly  administered  upon  the  appointed  days  throughout  the 
year.  But  I  do  feel  that  I  should  ask  the  Clergy  to  be  more 
careful  to  observe  exactly  the  direction  of  the  rubrics  in 
this  most  important  office,  and  to  follow  them,  not  only  with 
a  general  purpose  of  obedience,  but  with  accurate  conform- 
ity to  their  requirements.  I  do  not  infrequently  see 
Priests  whom  I  know  to  be  entirely  faithful  and  loyal,  dis- 
regard the  proper  order,  when  I  feel  sure  they  have  no 
thought  of  doing  so.  But  simply  do  not  take  sufficient 
pains  to  make  out  clearly  in  their  minds  just  what  is  the 
true  method  of  performing  the  service. 

I  desire  to  refer  to  the  Litany  and  the  daily  offices.  Our 
Prayer  Book  does  not  expressly  require  Morning  and  Evening 
Prayer  to  be  said  every  day  by  each  clergyman,  either  in  pub- 
lic or  else  privately,  as  the  English  Prayer  Book  does ;  nor  is 
it  commanded  that  the  Litany  shall  be  said  every  Wednesday 


9 


and  Friday.  The  circumstances  of  our  Church  life  in  Amer- 
ica have  made  such  requirements  impracticable.  It  does  not  in 
so  many  words  order  that  these  offices  should  be  used  every 
Sunday,  though  I  think  it  quite  evident  that  the  intention  of 
the  Prayer  Book  is  that  they  should  all  be  said,  as  a  rule,  on 
Sunday.  The  rubric  says  that  they  may  be  used  as  sepa- 
rate services,  and  adds:  "Provided,  that  no  one  of  these 
services  be  habitually  disused." 

When  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer  are  used  they  must 
be  used  in  their  integrity,  as  they  are  given  in  the  Prayer 
Book.  There  is  no  authority  for  the  omission  of  one  lesson, 
or  of  part  of  the  daily  Psalms,  or  of  the  Selections  allowed 
as  alternatives.  Such  omission  is  a  plain  breach  of  the  law. 
I  feel  myself  bound  to  obedience  in  this  matter.  A  Bishop 
must  set  an  example  of  obedience,  and  he  has  a  right  to  look 
for  the  same  obedience  to  law  in  the  Clergy. 

The  Litany  is  part  of  the  appointed  Sunday  service.  I  do 
not  know  that  in  any  church  in  this  Diocese  it  is  habitually 
disused  on  Sunday.  I  hope  it  is  not.  But  it  seems  to  me 
that  there  is  a  prevalent  disposition  to  neglect  its  use,  except 
at  infrequent  intervals,  and  at  times  when  but  few  attend. 
I  feel  it  well  to  call  your  attention  to  this,  and  to  remind 
you  that  the  Litany  is  perhaps  the  simplest,  the  most  affect- 
ing, the  easiest  of  comprehension,  and  most  generally  appre- 
ciated, of  all  our  services,  and  best  fitted  for  popular  use.  I 
am  satisfied  that  the  Clergy  do  not  carry  the  hearts  of  their 
people  with  them  in  the  very  frequent  omission  of  the  Litany 
from  the  Sunday  service.  In  more  than  one  parish  I  have 
heard  expressions  of  dissatisfaction  and  regret  at  the  so 
frequent  omission  of  the  Litany  on  Sundays. 

Where  the  Litany  is  said  as  a  separate  service,  or  where 
it  begins  the  service,  the  whole  Litany  should  be  used.  Oth- 
erwise, by  the  omission  of  the  latter  part,  we  have  an  office 
without  the  Lord's  Prayer,  in  violation  of  one  of  the  prin- 
ciples upon  which  the  Prayer  Book  offices  are  constructed. 

We  should  value  as  one  of  our  highest  privileges  and  most 
precious  possessions  the  Sunday  services,  wherein  we  unite 
as  one  family,  members  of  Christ,  children  of  God,  inheritors 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  in  claiming  and  showing  forth  in 
high  and  solemn  strains  the  blessedness  of  the  Christian  heri- 
tage and  citizenship ;  and  we  should  allow  no  passion  for 
novelty,  or  desire  for  popularity,  or  effort  after  adventitious 


10 


attractions,  to  debase  our  high  and  holy  worship.  Our  ef- 
forts to  make  our  Sunday  services  more  popular  by  extreme 
abbreviation,  by  what  are  called  "musical  features,"  by  col- 
loquial addresses  and  lectures  of  an  entertaining  rather  than 
a  devotional  or  doctrinal  character,  do  not  and  will  not  in- 
crease our  congregations.  The  only  way  we  can  increase 
our  congregations  is  by  increasing  the  devotional  spirit  of 
our  people.  And  the  devotional  spirit  of  the  people  can  not 
be  increased  by  decreasing  the  devotional  character  of  the 
service:  "The  hungry  sheep  look  up,  and  are  not  fed."  My 
observation  is  that  our  congregations  are  largest  where  there 
is  least  yielding  to  the  demand  for  shortened  services  and  so- 
called  "attractive  features." 

The  Cause  and  the  Cure. 

The  trouble  is  that  so  small  a  proportion  of  our  congrega- 
tions take  any  active  part  in  the  service.  And  taking  no 
real  part,  they  do  not  become  interested.  Suppose,  for  argu- 
ment's sake,  that  in  a  congregation  of  two  or  three  hundred 
people,  every  one  should  audibly  and  unitedly,  with  accord- 
ant voices,  join  in  those  parts  of  the  service  intended  to  be 
said  by  the  people — what  an  inspiring  and  heartening  effect 
it  would  have  upon  all  who  should  participate !  Would  it 
not  be  most  interesting  and  attractive,  as  well  as  impressive, 
to  the  least  devout  soul  among  them  ?  And  would  not  such  a 
service,  if  you  could  bring  your  people  up  to  it,  have  a 
greater  attractiveness,  a  greater  drawing  power,  than  the  best 
choir,  or  even  the  best  preacher  ?  Such  worship  by  the  peo- 
ple would  make  good  preaching,  by  its  influence  both  upon 
speaker  and  upon  hearer.  The  life  of  the  Body  gives  power 
to  the  voice  and  efficacy  to  the  message.  The  most  careless 
and  callous  can  not  be  wholly  insensible  to  the  truth  spoken 
by  the  preacher,  where  the  throbbing  heart  of  the  great  con- 
gregation responds  to  and  confirms  his  testimony,  and  sets 
forth  the  same  blessed  Gospel  in  prayers  and  hymns  and 
confessions  and  professions  of  the  Faith  once  delivered. 

It  is  a  very  grave  question  whether  the  failure  of  our  pub- 
lic worship  to  prove  thus  inspiring  and  effective  be  not 
chargeable  to  us  of  the  Clergy.  Certainly  it  is  largely  our 
fault.  An  act  of  common  worship  by  a  large  congregation, 
all  speaking  with  one  voice  in  audible  and  intelligible  re- 
sponse, is  a  highly  artificial  act,  and  can  not  be  accomplished 


11 


without  intelligent  effort  and  frequent  practice,  guided  by 
apt  suggestion  and  careful  instruction.  Some  kind  of  re- 
sponse may  be  made  by  the  people  with  the  book  before  them, 
without  help  or  training;  just  as  you  may  have  some  kind 
of  singing  in  a  mixed  congregation,  without  practice  or  lead- 
ing. But  a  liturgical  service  which  shall  be  full,  harmoni- 
ous, intelligent,  and  intelligible,  can  not  be  had  without  care- 
ful and  continuous  training  and  practice.  I  ask  you,  each 
one,  to  consider  with  himself,  whether  he  has  ever  made  any 
real  effort  to  teach  and  to  train  his  congregation,  and  by 
direction,  explanation,  suggestion,  and  practice,  endeavored 
to  give  them  distinct  ideas  of  what  public  worship  should 
be,  and  to  enable  them  to  unite  in  the  service,  so  as  to  secure 
the  best  and  most  edifying  result.  Is  it  a  matter  which  we 
seriously  consider  ?  Do  we  habitually  remember  it  as  part 
of  our  pastoral  duty  ?    I  fear  that  we  do  not. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  as  I  speak  these  words  some  of  you 
may  in  your  thoughts  be  repudiating  the  view  I  am  endeav- 
oring to  "present.  If  any  one  think  that  it  is  not  his  duty  to 
instruct  and  guide  and  train  his  congregation  in  the  proper 
conduct  of  public  worship,  but  that  he  may  leave  them  to  find 
it  out  for  themselves,  if  they  can,  and  to  practice  it  or  not, 
as  they  choose,  I  can  not  perhaps  expect  him  to  change  such 
opinions  upon  my  order.  But  if  there  be  such  an  one  I  can 
ask  him  so  far  to  follow  my  leadership,  as  to  consider  fairly 
what  I  say,  and  to  try  if  he  can  not  find  in  it  some  element 
of  truth  and  duty,  and  some  helful  suggestion.  A  Bishop 
is  naturally  no  wiser  than  a  Priest,  or  a  Deacon — or  even  a 
Layman !  But  his  observation  in  some  matters  is  wider,  his 
opportunities  are  greater,  he  is  forced  to  look  at  many  things 
from  different  points  of  view,  and  to  consider  many  subjects 
more  broadly,  than  he  did  as  a  parish  Priest  and  rector. 
And  I  believe  no  Priest  can  become  a  Bishop  without  becom- 
ing more  sensible  of  his  own  faults  and  deficiencies,  and 
realizing  how  much  more  he  might  have  done  for  his  parish- 
ioners than  he  did  do.  And  his  brethren  of  the  Clergy  he 
is  anxious  to  help  by  giving  them  some  results  of  his  observa- 
tions and  thoughts,  the  fruits,  it  may  be,  of  his  own  failures. 

It  is  not,  of  course,  practicable  to  make  our  Sunday  service 
a  time  for  frequent  or  extended  instruction  in  mere  methods 
of  worship.  That  would  be  to  degrade  that  holy  worship 
which  we  would  exalt.    Yet  brief  directions  and  suggestions 


12 


may  from  time  to  time  be  introduced  by  the  wise  and  rever- 
ent pastor,  as  to  postures,  responses,  and  other  matters  of 
similar  character,  which  would  be  of  great  value,  and  which 
might  tend  to  heighten  rather  than  depress  the  devotions 
of  the  people.  But  at  week-day  services,  and  more  informal 
meetings,  and  in  pastoral  visitation,  ample  opportunity  may 
be  found  for  instructing  and  training  those  who  would  natu- 
rally become  exemplars  and  leaders  of  the  congregation.  And 
especially  in  the  Sunday  School  and  in  Confirmation  classes, 
much  valuable  work  may  be  done. 

Our  most  faithful  Priests  and  teachers  are  strangely  neg- 
ligent in  some  minor  matters,  which  I  can  hardly  call  minor 
matters  after  all,  so  greatly  do  they  affect  the  decency,  rever- 
ence, and  edification  of  public  worship.  For  example,  in 
classes  of  earnest  and  devout  candidates  for  Confirmation,  it 
often  appears  that  men  and  women  are  absolutely  ignorant 
of  what  it  is  to  kneel;  and  coming  forward  to  Confirmtion 
and  to  the  Holy  Communion,  crouch  down  at  the  chancel 
rail,  without  putting  a  knee  to  the  ground,  in  grotesque  and 
uncomfortable  postures. 

I  mention  this  as  an  illustration  of  the  need  of  careful 
instruction  and  training,  if  we  would  really  make  our  people 
sharers  in  that  holy  culture  which  the  Church  provides  for 
her  children.  The  saintly  men  and  women,  trained  in  the 
stricter  school  of  our  old  pastors  and  teachers,  are  passing 
away;  and  a  younger  generation  fills  their  places.  More 
than  this,  greater  numbers  are  every  year  being  brought  into 
the  Church,  who  have  been  wholly  strange  to  our  ways  and 
untaught  in  our  worship.  We  defraud  them  of  their  due,  if 
we  fail  to  teach  them,  and  help  them  to  enter  in  and  possess 
the  better  things  of  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  And  we 
greatly  fail  in  our  duty  if  we  do  not  at  such  a  time  exert 
ourselves  to  preserve  and  to  perpetuate  the  Public  Worship 
of  the  Church,  and  give  our  best  endeavors  to  raise  to  a 
higher  excellence  the  devotional  life  of  our  people. 

I  can  not  at  this  time  say  more.  I  had  thought  of  going 
into  some  particulars  of  our  duty  in  leading  the  devotions 
of  the  people  and  ministering  in  the  congregation  the  Sacra- 
ments of  Grace.  Perhaps  I  may  do  so  on  another  occasion. 
Whatever  the  inadequacy  of  my  treatment  of  this  great  sub- 
ject, I  am  sure  you  can  not  fail  to  recognize  its  importance. 
Our  whole  system  of  Doctrine,  Polity,  and  Worship  is  in- 


13 


eluded  in  the  vital  unity  of  our  organic  Church  life.  Catho- 
lic Truth,  Apostolic  Order,  Liturgical  Worship,  have  not 
been  tied  together  by  the  bands  of  our  choice  and  of  our 
ecclesiastical  legislation.  They  have  grown  and  developed 
together  in  the  divine  life  of  the  one  Body.  But  it  is  the 
character  and  the  quality  of  our  Worship,  and  of  the  Truth 
set  forth  in  that  Worship,  which  have  given  to  the  Church 
most  of  the  influence  which  it  has  exerted  upon  American 
Christianity.  By  that  we  have  touched  the  religious  life  of 
our  people,  and  contributed  to  the  improvement  of  their 
worship,  and  helped  to  retain  in  the  popular  mind  the  purity 
of  the  Gospel.  In  what  body  of  worshipping  Christians  is 
this  influence  unfelt  ?  Who  now  fails  to  recognize  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  the  most  admirable  of  all  com- 
pendiums  of  devotion  %  That  which  has  been  our  greatest 
source  of  life,  of  power,  of  influence,  we  must  learn  to  prize 
more  highly,  by  learning  to  understand  it  better,  and  to  use 
it  more  faithfully. 

Jos.  Blount  Cheshire, 

Bishop  of  North  Carolina. 

September  28,  1912. 


PASTOEAL  LETTEE  TO  THE  CLEEGY  AND  LAITY. 


To  be  read  in  the  Churches  of  the  Diocese  on  such  Sunday  or  Sun- 
days during  the  months  of  November  and  December,  1912,  as  to  the 
local  clergyman  or  reader  may  seem  most  convenient. 

Brethren  of  the  Clergy  and  Laity: 

I  have  recently  addressed  to  the  Clergy  of  the  Diocese  a 
Charge  upon  the  Public  Worship  of  the  Church.  This  is  a 
large  subject,  and  a  subject  in  which  the  Laity  are  vitally 
interested,  no  less  than  the  Clergy.  My  Charge  to  the  Clergy 
was  intended  solely  to  call  their  attention  to  their  duty  in 
ministering  to  the  Laity. 

And  since  the  Laity  have  thus  an  equal  interest  in  all  mat- 
ters affecting  our  Public  Worship,  and  an  almost  equal  part 
in  its  performance,  and  in  responsibility  for  its  proper  and 
effective  use,  I  think  it  well  to  continue  this  subject  in  a 
Pastoral  Letter,  and  to  set  before  both  Clergy  and  Laity  in 
more  detail  some  instructions  and  suggestions,  which  may  be 
of  assistance  in  the  better  understanding  and  more  reverent 
and  edifying  enjoyment  of  the  services  and  offices  of  the 
Church.  Many  of  you  need  no  information  or  direction  in 
regard  to  what  you  were  trained  in  as  children,  and  have 
loved  and  practised  with  intelligent  appreciation  all  your 
lives.  But  others  have  not  enjoyed,  it  may  be,  such  careful 
training  and  instruction ;  and  many  earnest  and  faithful  men 
and  women,  boys  and  girls,  are  daily  coming  into  the  com- 
munion of  the  Church,  who  have  had  no  early  experience  of 
its  holy  ways,  and  who  will  welcome  a  word  of  direction  and 
of  explanation  to  help  them  to  a  fuller  appreciation  and  more 
intellient  use  of  the  Prayer  Book. 

L 

In  the  first  place,  then,  I  ask:  What  is  the  chief  purpose 
and  motive  with  which  we  attend  the  service  of  the  Church  ? 
W7e  should  go  to  the  public  service  first  of  all  to  present  our- 
selves before  our  God  and  Father,  and  to  claim  our  place  as 
His  children :  to  "present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy, 
acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service.'' 
That  is  the  first  and  foundation  principle  of  public  worship — 
to  present  ourselves  before  God,  in  His  House.    Keep  that  in 


16 


mind;  it  will  give  tone  and  character  to  the  whole  service. 
"Three  times  a  year  shall  all  your  males  appear  before  the 
Lord  in  the  place  which  He  shall  choose."  .  That  was  the 
fundamental  law  in  the  public  worship  of  the  old  Hebrew 
Church;  and  our  wTorship,  as  to  the  form  and  outward  ex- 
pression of  it,  had  its  origin  in  the  religious  institutions  of 
ancient  Israel. 

This  thought  of  presenting  ourselves  before  God  in 
acknowledgment  of  our  relation  to  Him,  claiming  Him  for 
our  God  and  Father,  determines  our  bodily  attitude;  we 
must  stand  before  Him.  There  is  no  attitude  proper  for 
worship  except  standing,  or  else  kneeling.  Indeed  when  we 
kneel  we  stand  upon  our  knees.  We  do  not  kneel  when  we 
grovel,  or  crouch,  or  recline,  or  merely  bend  the  head.  None 
of  these  postures  are  proper  for  devotion.  We  should  stand 
upright  on  our  feet,  or  upright  upon  our  knees.  The  Prayer 
Book  knows  no  other  posture  for  worship.  It  knows  nothing 
even  of  the  congregation  sitting.  There  are  no  seats  in  the 
great  ancient  churches,  i.  e.  no  fixed  or  permanent  seats  for 
the  congregation.  Indulgence  to  human  weakness  gradually 
introduced  the  custom  of  sitting  during  those  portions  of  the 
service  in  which  the  people  are  not  engaged  in  an  act  of 
worship,  but  merely  listen  to  the  sermon  or  to  the  reading  of 
the  Bible. 

And  here  it  is  to  be  noted,  that  although  the  people  sit 
ordinarily  to  hear  the  holy  Scriptures,  yet  at  the  reading  of 
the  "Gospel  for  the  day"  they  stand.  The  Gospel  for  the 
day  gives  always  the  very  words  of  our  Lord,  or  some  part 
of  the  story  of  His  redemptive  work.  The  Gospel  for  the 
day  always  sets  Him  before  us,  and  so  we  stand  in  reverence, 
and  praise  Him  for  His  goodness,  saying,  "Glory  be  to  Thee, 
O  Lord." 

So  when  the  minister  enters  the  chancel,  or  rises  from  his 
knees  to  begin  any  service,  or  says  "Here  endeth  the  lesson," 
or  "the  Epistle,"  the  congregation  should  rise  and  stand, 
ready  to  participate  in  the  following  act  of  worship.  They 
should  not  wait  for  it  to  begin,  but  should  at  once  rise  and 
stand  ready  to  take  their  part.  What  an  irreverent  and  slov- 
enly effect  is  produced  when  the  people  wait  for  the  minister 
or  the  choir  to  begin  before  rising ;  and  the  first  noble  sen- 
tence of  the  Te  Deum  or  the  Benedictus,  is  lost  in  the  rustle 
and  movement  of  the  congregation  getting  upon  their  feet ! 


IT 


And  when  it  is  time  to  kneel,  we  should  kneel;  and  to 
kneel  is  to  keep  the  body  upright,  but  resting  on  the  knees 
instead  of  on  the  feet.  Do  these  suggestions  seem  trivial  ?  I 
am  only  endeavoring  to  let  you  see  clearly  what  our  Prayer 
Book  requires ;  and  nothing  is  trivial  which  endeavors  to 
help  us  to  godly  reverence,  humility,  and  obedience. 

And  especially  is  it  right  and  necessary  that  we  of  the 
Clergy  should  remember  how  much  depends  on  our  setting 
the  people  an  example  of  obedience  and  reverence.  I  some- 
times fear  that  we  are  more  careless  and  irreverent  than  the 
Laity.  Being  so  continually  occupied  in  holy  things  it  is 
hard  not  to  fall  into  habits  of  indifference  and  carelessness, 
going  through  the  form  of  reverence,  but  wholly  forgetting 
the  true  spirit  of  godly  fear.  We  need  to  be  constantly  on 
our  guard  that  we  may  make  our  service  real,  and  truly  feel 
the  power  of  that  Truth  which  we  declare;  and  that  we  may 
set  our  people  an  example  of  that  sincerity  of  reverence  and 
devotion  which  we  inculcate.  Let  us  therefore  be  constantly 
on  the  watch  against  wandering  thoughts  and  careless  actions, 
humbly  seeking  God's  help  that  we  may  remember  what  we 
are  doing,  and  that  we  may  really  enter  into  the  solemn 
meaning  of  the  holy  words  we  utter.  The  old  arrangement 
of  the  choir  and  chancel,  whereby  the  officiating  clergyman 
ordinarily  faced  across  the  church,  and  not  towards  the  peo- 
ple, to  which  we  have  so  generally  returned  in  our  recent 
Church  building,  served,  among  other  purposes,  to  guard  the 
minister  from  being  distracted  in  his  devotion  by  having  the 
people  always  in  his  line  of  vision.  The  Prayer  Book  in- 
tends that  the  minister  ordinarily  should  not  face  the  peo- 
ple, because  at  certain  places  it  commands  him  to  turn  to 
them,  plainly  implying  that  he  is  not  looking  towards  them 
before.  Though  he  must  not  be  inattentive  to  the  general 
attitude  and  behaviour  of  his  people,  he  must  guard  against 
any  idle  or  curious  gazing  at  persons  or  occurrences  in  the 
congregation.  By  his  very  attitude  and  by  the  expression  of 
his  countenance  he  must  impress  them  with  his  earnestness 
and  devotion.  And  specially  he  must  never  fail  to  bear  his 
part  in  every  act  of  prayer  and  praise.  Tf  he  have  no  voice 
to  sing,  yet  must  his  heart  join  with  choir  and  singers,  and 
all  the  more  earnestly  because  his  heart  must  then  do  its  own 
part  and  also  the  part  in  which  his  lips  fail  him.  We  must 
not  be  so  thrifty  and  economical  of  our  time  that  we  find  the 


18 


lessons  while  the  Gloria  is  sung  after  the  Psalter,  or  so  in- 
dulgent to  our  bodies  that  we  sit  down  during  a  hymn  or 
anthem  or  offertory.  The  proper  posture  of  the  officiating 
minister  is  standing  or  kneeling.  Unless  age,  or  bodily  in- 
firmity require  such  indulgence,  he  should  never  sit.  What 
better  way  can  he  find  of  teaching  the  people  than  by  his  own 
devout  attention  and  intelligent  participation  in  every  part 
of  the  service  ? 

It  is  most  important,  first  of  all,  in  considering  our  public 
worship,  to  have  a  clear  understanding  of  its  fundamental 
principles.  I  have  said  that  we  go  to  Church  on  Sundays  to 
present  ourselves  before  God  in  His  House.  And  we  come 
into  His  House  as  His  Family.  We  do  not  come  as  indi- 
viduals to  preserve  our  individuality;  we  come  that  we  may 
express  and  realize  our  union  with  our  brethren  in  the  One 
Body.  We  are  One  Body  in  Him  Who  hath  joined  us  to 
Himself,  and  made  us  members  of  Him  and  of  one  another. 
7  fear  we  do  not  ordinarily  think  of  this,  but  we  come  to 
church  that  we  may  know  it  and  feel  it.  We  do  not  come 
that  we  may  think  about  ourselves,  and  offer  our  individual 
prayers  and  praises.  We  come  to  think  of  others,  and  to 
join  our  hearts  and  our  voices  with  theirs  in  common  worship. 
You  are  not  to  shut  your  eyes  and  your  hearts  to  all  things 
external,  and  to  try  to  be  alone  with  God.  You  do  that  in 
your  private  devotions  at  home.  When  you  come  to  church 
you  must  open  your  eyes  and  open  your  heart,  and  see  your 
brethren,  and  take  them  into  your  heart  and  into  your  sym- 
pathy and  affection,  and  you  must  think  of  them  in  prayer 
and  praise,  and  pray  for  them  more  than  for  yourself.  If 
the  services  and  Sacraments  of  the  Church  do  not  bring  us 
into  sympathetic  communion  with  our  brethren  with  whom 
we  worship,  we  have  missed  the  great  blessing  intended  in  our 
common  worship. 

This  public  worship  being  for  the  expression  and  cultiva- 
tion of  our  oneness  in  Christ,  we  are  not  at  such  times  to 
indulge  in  acts  of  purely  personal  and  individual  devotion, 
however  right  and  proper  in  themselves,  which  do  not  tend 
to  promote  the  feeling  and  appearance  of  unity  in  the  con- 
gregation. With  some  persons  it  is  a  very  real  expression  of 
reverence  always  to  bow  at  the  holy  Name,  or  to  make  the 
sign  of  the  Cross  in  connection  with  acts  of  worship.  I  have 
no  disposition  to  object  to  this.     But  true  devotion  and 


19 


Christian  humility  will  not  obtrude  its  individual  expres- 
sion to  disturb  even  in  appearance  the  harmony  of  common 
worship  where  such  customs  are  not  general,  but  will  find  a 
way  modestly  and  unobtrusively  to  do  its  reverence,  that 
even  outward  unity  may  not  seem  to  be  broken. 

For  the  expression  of  our  union  in  Christ,  and  to  cultivate 
the  sense  of  common  needs  and  common  duties,  the  Church 
provides  a  service  in  which  we  shall  unite  with  one  voice,  as 
well  as  with  one  heart  and  mind.  This  purpose  of  our 
Prayer  Book  worship  is,  it  seems  to  me,  too  little  attended  to 
or  appreciated.  Almost  no  effort  is  made  to  fulfil  what  the 
Prayer  Book  plainly  intends.  We  have  mostly  been  satisfied 
if  our  people  somehow  or  other,  every  one  according  to  his 
own  fancy,  read  out  the  responses,  loud  or  soft,  slow  or  fast, 
with  little  discrimination  and  with  no  direction  or  guidance. 
The  result  is  that  we  almost  never  hear  the  service  read  as  it 
should  be  read,  and  are  seldom  able  to  appreciate  its  full 
beauty  and  power. 

I  ask  you,  therefore,  my  dear  brethren,  to  remember  that 
you  should  endeavor  to  join  your  voices  with  those  of  your 
brethren  in  an  audible  and  intelligible,  and  united  utterance 
in  the  solemn  services  of  the  Church ;  and  to  accomplish  this 
you  must  speak  with  some  measure  of  deliberation,  pausing 
distinctly  at  the  natural  breaks  in  the  sentence,  that  the  una- 
voidable differences  in  time  may  every  moment  be  arrested 
and  corrected,  and  so  a  practically  united  utterance  may  be 
obtained.  This  is  very  plainly  the  purpose  of  the  Prayer 
Book,  as  you  may  see  by  observing  that  in  all  those  parts  to 
be  said  together,  the  sentences  are  broken  into  short  clauses, 
each  beginning  with  a  capital  letter,  that  we  may  readily  per- 
ceive where  these  common  pauses  are  to  be  made.  And  in 
reading  the  Psalms  and  Canticles  you  observe  that  at  or  near 
the  middle  of  each  verse  is  placed  a  colon.  Here  a  full  and 
distinct  pause  should  be  made  by  the  whole  congregation, 
that  the  characteristic  feature  of  this  ancient  Hebrew  poetry 
may  be  preserved,  and  that  all  may  make  a  united  beginning 
upon  the  second  part  of  the  verse.  By  reading  deliberately, 
with  sympathetic  attention  to  the  voices  of  others,  observing 
the  pauses  so  plainly  marked  for  us  in  the  Prayer  Book,  en- 
deavoring to  keep  in  harmonious  accord  with  others,  we  may 
readily  attain  a  unity  of  utterance,  a  unanimity  of  expression 
in  our  spoken  devotions,  which  shall  add  greatly  to  the  beauty 


20 


and  effectiveness  of  our  services,  and  in  even  a  greater  meas- 
ure elevate  our  sense  of  joy  and  happiness  in  the  communion 
and  fellowship  of  our  brethren  in  the  Church.  We  all  feel 
the  power  of  a  familiar  hymn  uniting  the  hearts  and  voices 
of  a  great  congregation,  as  they  join  in  its  familiar  strains. 
In  the  same  way  we  may  make  our  whole  service  a  source  of 
spiritual  power  and  enjoyment,  if  ministers  and  people  will 
take  a  little  more  pains  to  enter  into  the  true  spirit  and  pur- 
pose of  the  Prayer  Book,  and  learn  to  render  its  holy  offices 
as  they  are  plainly  intended  to  be  rendered. 

I  would  specially  emphasize  the  necessity  of  reading  all 
parts  of  the  service  with  deliberation  and  distinctness,  and, 
in  George  Herbert's  phrase,  pausably.  Our  familiarity  with 
its  language  renders  as -insensible  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
we  are  disposed  to  run  through  it,  and  there  is  a  sort  of  stirnr 
ulus  in  reading  together,  which  tends  to  increase  this  habit. 
I  have  not  infrequently  noticed  that  a  clergyman  who  reads 
his  own  part  of  the  service  with  reasonable  deliberation,  will 
quicken  his  pace  in  those  parts  where  the  people  join  with 
him,  which  is  just  when  he  should  read  a  little  more  slowly. 
All  skilful  public  speakers  find  that  if  they  would  be  under- 
stood they  must  speak  more  slowly  in  proportion  as  they  have 
a  larger  audience ;  and  it  is  the  same  in  reading  the  service, 
the  larger  the  congregation  the  more  deliberately  and  paus- 
ably should  the  service  be  said. 

We  must  speak  somewhat  deliberately,  for  we  can  not  our- 
selves fully  appreciate  the  beauty  of  the  words,  nor  enter 
deeply  into  their  spiritual  significance,  unless  we  dwell  upon 
them  a  little  as  we  speak  them.  The  rythmical  quality  of  the 
language  demands  a  measured  utterance,  that  the  musical 
cadence  of  its  eloquent  periods  may  accompany  and  deepen 
its  appeal  to  mind  and  heart. 

And,  most  important  of  all,  we  must  check  our  disposition 
to  rapid  utterance,  because  otherwise  we  make  it  impossible 
for  those  to  join  with  us  who  are  less  familiar  with  the  serv- 
ice. A  body  can  move  unitedly  only  by  restraining  its 
swifter  members,  and  accommodating  its  progress  to  the 
speed  of  the  slowest.  If  we  would  make  our  services  attract- 
ive and  edifying  to  all,  we  must  so  render  them  that  all  may 
unite  with  us  with  voice  as  well  as  heart  in  our  prayer  and 
praise. 

I  most  earnestly  recommend  to  the  Clergy  and  the  people 


21 


of  the  Diocese  united  efforts  towards  the  better  understanding 
and  use  of  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Priest  and  people 
can  in  no  way  do  better  work  for  their  own  edification  and 
for  increasing  the  power  and  influence  of  the  Church,  than  by 
taking  pains  to  understand  its  principles,  and  to  illustrate 
them  by  their  devout  use  of  it,  in  its  spirit  and  in  its  forms. 

II. 

I  desire  to  speak  briefly  a  few  things  as  to  some  of  the 
more  important  services  of  the  Prayer  Book. 

I  am  glad  to  know  that  throughout  the  Diocese  there  is  a 
proper  recognition  of  the  Holy  Communion,  as  the  great 
service,  and  that  it  is,  as  a  rule,  duly  administered  upon  all 
Sundays  and  holy  days,  so  far  as  is  practicable.  There  are 
a  few  details  in  regard  to  this  service  of  which  I  would  speak. 
What  I  say  may,  to  some,  seem  unnecessary,  and  to  most  it  is 
unnecessary.  Yet  the  experience  of  a  Bishop  shows  him  that 
very  excellent  people  sometimes  need  and  desire  plain  in- 
structions and  directions  in  what  to  most  are  familiar  mat- 
ters. 

First,  then,  I  think  that  few  of  our  people,  or  even  of  our 
Clergy,  appreciate  the  value  and  practical  utility  of  the  two 
forms  of  Exhortation  or  warning,  appended  to  the  office  of 
the  Holy  Communion,  to  be  used  beforehand  in  giving  notice 
when  the  Communion  is  to  be  administered.  The  use  of  the 
first,  in  whole  or  in  part,  is  obligatory.  The  Priest  who 
habitually  neglects  to  use  it  violates  his  plain  duty.  The  bet- 
ter appreciation  and  more  frequent  celebration  of  this  Sacra- 
ment has  not  unnaturally  affected  the  use  of  this  "Warning," 
and  only  the  first  two  or  three  sentences  or  clauses  are  usually 
read.  I  do  not  find  fault  with  this;  but  I  believe  that  once 
in  the  month,  before  the  monthly  mid-day  celebration  com- 
monly observed  in  our  churches,  it  would  be  well  to  read  at 
least  the  first  paragraph  entire.  And  once  each  year,  either 
at  the  beginning  of  Advent  or  of  Lent,  I  could  wish  that  the 
whole  should  be  read  in  every  congregation  of  the  Diocese. 
It  is  a  most  admirable  statement  of  doctrine,  and  of  wiee  and 
wholesome  counsel  for  the  Christian,  in  connection  with  this 
great  Sacrament. 

And  what  Priest  or  pastor  is  so  happy  as  to  be  able  to  think 
that  his  peonle  never  need  to  hear  the  second  of  these  two  Ex- 
hortations, the  one  to  be  used  "in  case  he  shall  see  the  people 


22 


negligent  to  come  to  the  Holy  Communion''  \  My  own  rule, 
when  I  had  a  parish,  was  to  read  the  first  Exhortation  entire 
Lt  the  heginning  of  Advent,  and  the  second  at  the  beginning; 
of  Lent.  I  believe  it  was  a  good  rule,  which  might  with  ad- 
vantage be  adopted  throughout  the  Diocese. 

The  elements  used  in  the  Holy  Communion  must  be 
wheaten  bread  and  wine,  i.  e.,  the  fermented  juice  of  the 
grape.  Grape  juice  treated  so  that  it  can  not  become  wine,  in 
the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  can  not  properly  be  used.  The 
wine  may  be  diluted  with  pure  water ;  but  not  more  than  one- 
fourth,  or  at  most  one-third,  as  much  water  should  be  used. 
It  should  not  be  so  diluted  as  not  to  produce  on  the  senses  the 
impression  of  wine.  So,  where  wafer  bread  is  used,  it  should 
be  of  sufficient  thickness  to  produce  on  the  senses  the  impres- 
sion of  food.  Our  Blessed  Lord  took  the  bread  and  wine  of 
ordinary  use,  and  we  abandon  the  symbolism  which  He  em- 
ployed and  commanded  unless  we  have  elements  of  such  kind 
as  preserve  the  idea  of  food  for  the  body,  figuring  the  spiritual 
food  of  the  soul.  And  the  bread  should  not  before  the  service 
be  prepared  in  small  pieces  for  distribution.  It  must  be  of  suf- 
ficient size  to  be  broken  in  the  service,  and  divided  among  a 
number  of  persons.  That  also  is  part  of  our  Saviour's  sym- 
bolism, and  it  is  expressly  required  by  the  terms  of  our 
rubric.  It  is  also  required  by  the  plain  meaning  of  our 
rubrics  that  "the  Cup"  should  not  be  an  "individual  cup," 
but  one  from  which  numbers  of  brethren  may  drink.  I  am 
not  saying  that  all  these  details  are  necessary  to  the  integrity 
of  the  Sacrament :  I  am  only  saying  that  they  are  required  by 
a  fair  interpretation  of  the  service  as  set  forth  in  our  Book  of 
Common  Prayer. 

The  bread  and  the  wine  should  be  prepared  and  placed  on 
the  "Credence.''  Where  this  may  be  impossible  or  imprac- 
ticable (as  sometimes  it  is  ),  they  may  be  placed  on  the  south 
end  of  the  Altar  until  after  the  offerings  are  presented  and 
"placed  on  the  Holy  Table."  After  the  alms  are  presented 
and  not  until  then,  the  Priest  should  ''place  upon  the  Table 
so  much  bread  and  wine  as  he  shall  think  sufficient" ;  and 
when  a  sentence  is  said  or  sung  at  this  time,  it  should  be 
when  the  elements  are  put  upon  the  Altar,  not  merely  at  the 
presentation  of  the  Alms.  The  liturgical  reason  for  this  is 
important,  and  is  sufficiently  obvious,  but  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  say  that  it  is  plainly  required  by  the  rubric. 


In  the  beginning  of  this  service  the  minister  is  allowed  to 
omit  our  Lord's  summary  of  the  Law,  when  he  has  read  the 
Ten  Commandments.  I  have  no  right  to  restrain  the  Clergy 
in  their  exercise  of  any  liberty  allowed  by  the  rubric.  But 
i.o  my  mind  our  Lord's  words  in  this  place  ought  always  to 
be  read.  I  have  never  once  omitted  them  in  all  my  ministry. 
Their  introduction  at  this  place  was  one  of  the  very  greatest 
improvements  made  by  our  American  Church  in  revising  the 
Prayer  Book  in  1789.  In  these  words  our  Lord  translates 
the  old  Law— athe  Law  of  a  carnal  commandment," — into 
"the  Power  of  an  endless  Life,"  which  is  Love. 

In  regard  to  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism,  I  desire  at  this 
time  to  call  your  attention  to  the  careful  preparation  which 
the  rubric  requires  in  the  case  of  adults.  I  am  at  times 
tempted  to  think  that  some  of  our  Clergy  have  not  atten- 
tively read  the  rubric.  I  also  wish  to  say  that,  where  the 
candidate  is  not  immersed  in  the  water,  the  water  must  be 
"poured  upon'  him.  I  have  sometimes  seen  the  minister 
sprinkle  a  few  drops  only,  or  merely  lay  his  wet  haud  upon 
the  forehead  of  the  child.  Neither  act  is  a  compliance  with 
the  rubric.  I  am  sure  that  it  is  only  necessary  that  I  should 
mention  this. 

I  could  wish  that  the  Ember  Days  and  the  Rogation  Days 
were  better  observed.  Many  of  our  good  people  hardly  know 
what  these  days  mean,  or  when  they  come.  Where  it  is  not 
practicable  to  have  service  upon  them,  they  should  at  least 
be  explained,  and  notice  should  be  given  of  them.  The  rubric 
requires  the  minister  each  Sunday  to  "declare  unto  the  peo- 
ple what  Holy- days,  or  Fasting-days,  are  in  the  week  follow- 
ing to  be  observed" ;  and  whether  he  is  able  to  have  a  public 
service  or  not,  the  people  should  be  notified,  that  they  may 
at  least  observe  them  in  their  homes  and  in  their  private 
devotions. 

What  has  been  said  upon  the  general  subject  of  the  be- 
haviour of  minister  and  people  during  public  worship  leaves 
nothing  that  I  desire  to  add  in  regard  to  Morning  and  Even- 
ing Prayer,  except  two  observations  of  minor  importance : 
first,  where  the  General  Confession  is  to  be  used,  the  opening 
sentences  read  should  always  include  one  or  more  of  the  peni- 
tential sentences ;  and  second,  it  has  always  seemed  to  me 
that  at  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer  the  first  form  of  Abso- 


24 


lution  should  be  used,  and  the  shorter  alternative  form  be 
left  exclusively  for  the  Holy  Communion,  where  it  more 
properly  belongs.  In  this,  however,  the  rubric  allows  the 
officiating  Priest  his  liberty  of  choice. 

Due  respect  for  the  public  worship  of  God  can  never  be 
dissociated  from  reverence  for  God's  House — "the  place 
where  His  honor  dwelleth,"  in  the  beautiful  phrase  of  the 
Psalmist.  I  must,  therefore,  say  a  word  in  regard  to  the 
subject  of  the  preparation  and  adornment  of  the  church  for 
public  worship.  The  essential  thing  here  is  to  remember: 
first,  that  ornament  must  be  subordinate  to  use ;  and  second, 
that  the  church  is  to  be  adorned  and  beautified  for  God's 
honor,  and  not  in  honor  of  men  or  of  women. 

Ornament  must  be  subordinated  to  use.  There  is  a  paral- 
lel rule  in  architecture,  that  construction  may  be  ornamented, 
but  that  ornament  must  not  be  constructed.  To  illustrate 
what  I  mean :  the  font  stands  in  the  church  to.  symbolize  Holy 
Baptism ;  the  altar  stands  as  a  continual  symbol  of  the  Holy 
Communion.  We  must  not  change  the  font  into  a  flower  pot 
by  putting  flowers  into  it,  thus  destroying  both  its  symbol- 
ism and  its  use.  Nor  must  we  use  the  Holy  Table  as  a  place 
to  put  candles  for  illumination  or  flowers  for  ornament. 
There  may  well  be  garlands  of  flowers  around  the  font,  or 
flowers  and  the  two  candles  on  the  re-table,  but  the  Holy 
Table  proper  should  stand  always  unoccupied  by  such  things, 
as  a  symbol  of  the  Holy  Feast. 

The  Church  must  be  beautified  in  God's  honor,  not  for 
man's.  It  is  most  important  that  we  should  remember  this. 
Some  years  before  I  became  Bishop  one  of  the  best  and  ablest 
of  our  Priests  said  to  me  that  in  his  judgment  the  church 
should  be  adorned  at  the  celebration  of  Christian  festivals  in 
honor  of  our  Lord — but  that  it  should  not  be  decorated  in 
honor  of  men.  I  had  not  thought  of  that  aspect  of  the  ques- 
tion, but  it  impressed  me  at  once,  and  I  determined  from  that 
time  that  my  parish  church  should  be  adorned  and  beautified 
with  flowers  and  other  things,  only  with  reference  to  the  cel- 
ebration of  the  Festivals  of  our  Lord.  We  consecrate  our 
churches  to  God's  service  and  worship.  We  have  no  right 
then  to  use  them  to  honor  and  glorify  men.  It  is  beyond 
question  that  the  dressing  and  ornamenting  of  churches  for 
weddings,  and  sometimes  for  funerals,  is  often  carried  to  an 
extravagant  excess,  so  that  the  holy  character  of  the  build- 


25 


ing  and  of  the  service  is  sacrificed  to  gratify  the  vanity  of 
wealthy  or  fashionable  people.  This  ought  not  to  be.  If  the 
church  is  to  be  decorated  for  weddings  or  for  funerals  it 
should  be  for  all  alike.  The  rich  may  exhibit  their  wealth 
upon  their  persons  and  in  their  own  homes,  but  the  House  of 
God  should  be  alike  for  all,  All  decoration  or  ornamenta- 
tion, or  preparation  of  the  church  for  particular  services,  is 
under  the  absolute  control  of  the  rector,  and  he  should 
appoint  suitable  persons  to  attend  to  it,  under  such  rules  and 
regulations  as  he  may  appoint ;  and  no  other  persons  should 
he  allowed  to  say  what  in  this  connection  should  be  done. 
And  for  weddings  or  funerals,  or  any  other  special  service, 
only  such  moderate  and  inexpensive  adornment  should  be 
used  as  can  be  afforded  for  all  similar  services,  without  refer- 
ence to  the  wealth,  position,  or  popularity  of  particular  indi- 
viduals.   The  Church  should  treat  all  Iter  children  alike. 

I  would  further  ask  both  Clergy  and  Laity  to  consider 
seriously  whether  it  is  consistent  with  the  reverence  due  to 
the  House  of  God,  and  with  the  terms  of  our  solemn  conse- 
cration service,  to  allow  the  Church  to  be  used  for  rehearsing 
beforehand  the  details  of  wedding  processions  and  the  like. 
I  should  like  to  see  all  such  uses  discontinued ;  and  if  that 
should  mean  simpler  wedding  services,  less  elaboration  of 
preparation,  and  less  cumbersome  ceremonial,  I  believe  that 
the  gain  in  simplicity  and  reverence  would  justify  the  change 
to  all  judicious  minds 

It  remains  that  I  should  say  a  very  few  words  in  regard  to 
a  matter  more  personal  to  certain  classes  of  worshippers.  It 
is  a  traditional  law  of  the  Church,  based  on  an  explicit 
direction  of  St.  Paul  in  one  of  his  Epietles,  that  women 
should  not  appear  at  public  worship  with  uncovered  heads. 
Unquestionably  St.  Paul  spoke  under  the  influence  of  preva- 
lent social  customs  and  convictions,  which  made  it  distinctly 
immodest  for  a  woman  upon  any  public  occasion,  or  in  any 
popular  gathering,  to  appear  with  her  head  uncovered.  And 
it  is  also  equally  unquestionable  that  Christianity  has  pro- 
duced such  a  change  in  men  and  in  women  and  in  society, 
and  a  change  for  the  better,  that  such  an  act  does  not  imply, 
and  is  not  by  any  understood  to  imply,  any  want  of  modesty 
at  the  present  time.  And  yet  fundamentally  human  nature 
remains  the  same,  and  there  is  no  radical  change  in  us.  And 
the  relation  of  woman  to  the  life  of  man,  and  of  the  com- 


26 


munity,  does  still  make  it  becoming  that  she  should  observe  a 
guarded  and  reserved  behaviour,  especially  in  public,  not 
necessary  in  the  same  degree  to  a  man ;  and  of  that  necessary 
element  of  reserve  and  modest  self  restraint  the  covered  head 
is  still  beautifully  significant.  I  am  sure  I  carry  with  me  the 
sentiments  of  all  of  our  people  in  desiring  to  see  our  women 
and  girls  still  observant  of  St.  Paul's  rule:  that  they  should 
not  come  to  the  public  services  of  the  Church  with  uncov- 
ered heads.  And  I  would  add  that,  if  this  be  our  rule,  it  is 
quite  as  proper  that  it  should  be  observed  upon  the  occasion 
of  public  weddings  in  church,  as  upon  other  occasions  of 
public  worship. 

In  this  connection  I  have  observed  with  much  satisfaction 
that  in  a  number  of  our  churches  women  and  girls  who  come 
to  confirmation  wear  a  simple  white  veil  upon  their  heads. 
This  seems  to  be  most  proper  and  becoming,  and  a  very 
reasonable  respect  to  a  tradition  so  ancient  and  so  universal 
in  the  Christian  Church.  I  could  wish  to  see  this  custom 
generally  adopted. 

I  am  making  this  letter  much  longer  than  I  had  intended 
that  it  should  be,  in  an  effort  to  do  something  towards  help- 
ing you  to  a  better  appreciation  of  the  law  and  customs  of  the 
Church  in  the  common  duty  of  public  worship.  Now  that 
I  draw  to  an  end  I  feel  how  weak  and  feeble  are  my  words 
to  accomplish  the  great  work  which  I  desire  to  help  on.  And 
yet  the  Spirit  and  power  of  God  may  make  use  of  very 
poor  instruments  to  further  His  work  and  to  accomplish  His 
blessed  purposes.  Praying  that  He  may  use  me,  and  that 
He  may  bless  my  words  to  you  to  accomplish  in  you  that 
which  may  be  well  pleasing  in  His  sight,  I  subscribe  myself, 

Your  friend  and  brother,  and  servant  for  Christ's  sake, 

Jos.  Blount  Cheshire, 

Bishop  of  North  Carolina. 

September  28,  1912. 


•s 


1508 


